Iran warned not to provoke US
US ACTING Defence Secretary Pat Shanahan has called on the Iranian regime to “cease all provocation” and said the US would hold the regime accountable for any attack on US forces or interests.
Shanahan made the comments on Twitter a day after the announcement of the deployment of a US carrier strike group and a bomber task force to the Middle East.
The deployment represents “a prudent repositioning of assets in response to indications of a credible threat by Iranian regime forces”, he tweeted.
US National Security Adviser John Bolton on Sunday announced the deployment of the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group to the US Central Command region in response to “troubling and escalatory indications and warnings”.
Bolton said the aim of the deployment was to send a “clear and unmistakable” message to the Iranian regime that any attack on US interests or on those of our allies will be met with “unrelenting force”.
The US wasn’t seeking war, he said, but was prepared to respond to any attack, whether by proxy, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps or regular Iranian forces.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also commented on the deployment. The Iranians “understand exactly what our view is of the threats they’re posing to US interests around the world”.
The action was not related to the recent fighting between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, he said.
The US has been reimposing sanctions on Iran since last year when US President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal, which lifted economic sanctions on Iran in exchange for its abandonment of its nuclear weapons programme.
The sanctions have targeted Iran’s oil industry, the country’s main source of income, with serious consequences for the Iranian economy. Last month Washington announced that any countries buying Iranian oil would face US sanctions. The US also designated Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist organisation.
Trump has been encouraged in his approach to Iran by Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was strongly opposed to the 2015 nuclear deal. |